Assessing the exergy degradation of the natural capital: From Szargut's updated reference environment to the new thermoecological-cost methodology

This paper shows the common developments performed by the Institute of Thermal Technology and the Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption regarding the assessment of natural resource degradation. Particularly, it shows the last model of the Szargut's Reference Environment, which was updated with new geological and geochemical information not available when it was originally developed. This R.E. allows for a more precise assessment of the chemical exergy of natural resources. The paper further shows the concept of the Exergy Replacement Costs (ERC) and the model of Thanatia, a theory that serves to assess the concentration exergy of mineral resources based on their scarcity degree in Nature. The combination of the ERC concept with the Thermo-Ecological Cost method (TEC), originally proposed by Szargut to assess products considering the exergy associated to the consumption of non-renewable resources extracted directly from Nature, gave birth to the TERC methodology, to better assess the degradation of the mineral capital.